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Onyx's glare slides to the man in our cave, and I feel my own annoyance rising as I rub at my sore arm. Rayne doesn'tbelonghere. And the more I think about it, the more I realize that I hate that he’s here. I hate that he’s the master of her heart. Hersupposedmate. Because he'snotany more, shouldn’t be any more.We’reher mates—Onyx, Dusk, and I.
This is the fucking last thing we need after a battle.
Rayne's pale brown eyes move to me, and his casual demeanor changes a bit. "Anything at all? I'm starving. At this point I'd eat some berries if I had to."
If hehadto? Is this how all fae royals are?Ann was never this way.
Still, I rise and go to one corner. I unwrap some of our jerkied meat and throw a piece. It hits him in the chest, and he barely manages to catch it before it hits the ground.
"Uh, thanks."
I grunt in response, but I really want to tell him to just leave. That he isn't needed here.
"So, what happened to the rest of those guys?" Rayne asks, biting into the jerky, wincing, and chewing slowly.
The other shadow beasts in the battle against our father are back at the main cave, healing, recuperating, benefiting from tried and true medicine that had been passed from age to age, administered by the elders. Those who weren’t injured are patrolling, watching for trolls who escaped the battle, who weren’t killed by the blinding golden light Ann used to kill anything in her path. But Rayne should know this if he's been haunting us, shouldn't he?
When none of us answer, Ann finally looks up and seems to realize there's tension in the air. Her mouth pulls into a thin line, and she says, "They'll be at the main cave, healing."
Rayen nods. "Wouldn't it be smarter if we were with them? You know, strength in numbers."
Onyx huffs and goes to his belongings. He grabs another rag, removes his shirt, and uses some water to begin to wipe himself down, ignoring the man in the room. A man I wish I could ignore too.
"This is the way we've set things up." There, I answered him.
Rayne lifts a brow but seems to realize we aren't in the mood for his chit chat. Instead, he positions himself against a wall, then slides to the ground, resting as if he were the one to take on our enemies. A small voice in the back of my head reminds me that he's using the body of someone who is probably feeling frail and weak without eating for so long and only drinking the little bit of water that our healer could get into him, but a louder part of me just feels annoyed by everything the man does.
"Well, Dusk will be okay, but he could use some more healing," Ann says, and she sounds relieved. "I'll try to use my powers again when I can. Right now, I still feel a bit weak."
In response, Onyx silently brings her a water skin and some jerky. She thanks him with a smile, but shares it with Dusk before she has any herself. He drinks the water eagerly, then begins to gnaw on the half of the jerky she handed him. It's almost enough to make me smile. We tend to care for our women first, but Dusk would never have been able to turn down something Ann offered him.
She begins to eat and drink slowly, and the firelight illuminates her face in a way that reminds me of when she used her powers. Her remarkable, unexpected powers. Her ability that saved us all and might be the key to winning this war, if we can figure out a way to harness it without putting her in danger.
“What was that light?” I don’t mean to blurt out the words. But now they’re out there, waiting for clarification so she doesn’t step around them. “The one you used to obliterate the trolls, the one you used to heal us.”
“I don’t know. I just knew it was there and I used it.” Her big blue eyes blink as if she doesn’t believe it herself. And that's at least one small measure of relief. Ann wasn't hiding this great power from us. She wasn't holding back. It came as unexpectedly to her as it did to us.
But my relief is short-lived when Rayne stands up, his jerky finished, and sits down beside Ann, his hand running along her back. "It was incredible. What you did tonight…just incredible."
She gives him a little smile, but there's something in her eyes I can't read. "Thanks."
He returns her smile, and the look of contentment is gone from Dusk's face, replaced by concern. And Onyx isn't fooling anyone, chewing his jerky like he wishes he was tearing Rayne's head off instead.
Normally, this is the time when I’d step in. When I’d cool things down. When I’d remind my brothers about the logical aspect of this. Rayne being back doesn't mean we'll lose Ann. It doesn't mean she'll choose him.
But she could.And that small chance makes something inside of me unravel.
I can’t be here in this space right now. My head is too muddled with the things I know and those I don’t. And her presence blocks any sense I might be able to make of it. All I want to focus on is her and our relationship, on how Rayne complicates it, but there's so much more outside of that. I should be the leader of my people, even though I don't feel like one. I should be thinking about our next step. Our next plan.
And I can't do that around her.
She sighs. Not in sadness, maybe not even in frustration. But the sound shoots through me.
“I’m going out to get supplies.” Not because we need anything pressing, but because I need to clear my head. I don’t wait for an answer but walk out. Past the shelves where we keep our supplies, away from the bedrolls near the always burning fire where she helps Dusk recline, away from her, from Rayne.
From a problem I can't seem to find the answer to.
The sunrise burns on the horizon. It’s normally a time I would bask in the dim light, but I hurry through the woods, almost running, like I'm trying to escape things that aren't even chasing me. But my mind moves in circles, entrapping me, refusing to let me pretend, even for a moment, that things are like they were before Ann.
